Looking for information on nanotechnology, its promises, and its dangers? Go to our selection of Websites, Reports & Articles, and Multimedia and Public consultations on nanotechnology.

Some background information ...

• What is Nanotechnology?
• What kind of applications does nanotechnology enable?
• Nanotechnology offers incredible promise and possible dangers

What is Nanotechnology?

Nanotechnology is an emerging field which involves the understanding, manufacture and manipulation of materials at the molecular or atomic level.

Nanoparticles are so small that they can't be observed without special equipment. Nano means “dwarf”... but also “one billionth”. A nanometer is one billionth of a meter. That puts us on the scale of atoms, but how small is that?
A ‘nanometer’is:
- 1/10 of the thickness of metal film on a packet of potato chips
- 1/80,000 the diameter of an average human hair

A gallon of paint could cover the entire UW-Madison campus 1 nanometer thick.
(Area of campus = 3.77 km2. 3770000 m2 x 1 nm = 0.00377 m3 = 0.996 gallon)

Down to the nanoscale - Interactive nanoscale graphics by New Scientist

Nanotechnology will enable scientists and industries to make new shapes, devices, machines, and products.

What kind of applications does nanotechnology enable?

Nanotechnology involves a broad range of disciplines and is expected to create potentially revolutionary advances for the computer, medical, military, energy, agriculture and even textile industries

Nanotechnology applications are already in everyday life, for example:
- stain-resistant clothes
- stronger, lighter baseball bats or aircraft materials
- cosmetics and sunscreens
- self-cleaning windows
- faster and more integrated circuits
- smell-resistant, anti-microbial and anti-bacterial socks and athletic or military attire
- clear insulation
- car wax whose compounds are so small they fill even the tiniest imperfections in a paint to restore that "new car look''

See our NanoProducts webpages.

Tomorrow nanotechnology may help create enhanced cancer treatments, thanks to new tumor-targeting medicines, as well as detect explosives, chemical and biological agents thanks to new sensors. It may also improve energy storage, water desalination, water decontamination, and many other applications.

See BBC News webpages: In pictures - Nanotechnology in our lives.

Nanotechnology offers incredible promise and possible dangers

By operating at the nanoscale, researchers can extract novel behaviors from familiar materials because they are working with the building blocks of biology and chemistry. Nanotechnology has great potential to transform many diverse areas of technology.

However, uncontrolled, unwise or malicious use could seriously threaten humans and the environment. Nanoparticles, given their size, if spread out in the environment or absorbed in the body via the lungs, skin or digestive system, may have toxic consequences.

And dangers are not restricted to the risks of nanoparticle toxicity. There are other broader questions that need to be addressed: for example, privacy, informed consent, and possible changes to the “humanity” definition. Indeed, nanotechnology is expected to enable “human enhancement” by establishing bridges with information and communication technology, biotechnology, and cognitive science.

To find out more:
- Websites - Reports & Articles - Multimedia
- NanoProducts
- Nanotechnology & the Environment
- Directorate General for Health and Consummer Protection of the European Commission
- Wikipedia article on Nanotechnology
- Nanotechnology: Big Things from a Tiny World - National Nanotechnology Initiative